He says, “If you can get a piece of evidence that is scientifically sound for instance like shell casings or obviously the murder weapon, now you are dealing with a piece of evidence that can’t be manipulated.”

Lepone served as the lead prosecutor in the Cox case where ballistics played a major roll.

In October 2007, the TBI matched cartridge casings from two, separate murders. The same .40-caliber gun was used in each.

Police had no suspects until three months later when the same gun was used to kill Lt. Ed Vidulich of the Memphis Police Department.

W.D. Merritt was the lead detective on the case.

“I got a call early that morning and my supervisor called me and said they had found Lt. Vidulich shot to death in his house.”

Merritt said, “You could tell some things had been messed around, the house had been disturbed, then we found him there and found the shell casings.”

From the beginning, there were rumors of extortion, stolen guns, and a mystery man named Tony Smith.

As Merritt and his team began to peel back the layers of this case, they stumbled upon a major break three days after Lt. Vidulich was killed.

An officer looking into Tony Smith learned about a teen being arrested for shooting a gun across the street from Frayser High School.

That teen was Dexter Cox.

“This officer was able to identify Dexter Cox as Tony Smith who was in the home of Ed Vidulich when he called to report the burglary,” Lepone says.

Police also knew a gun was missing from Vidulich’s house. Merritt then got the serial number from the gun Cox was arrested with.

“The serial number on that gun matched the box, the empty gun box that was inside it, Vidulich’s house,” Merritt added.

This was enough for police to bring Cox in for questioning.

Oddly enough, they picked him up at the Criminal Justice Center where he’d shown up for a hearing on that misdemeanor charge.

Merritt told WREG, “We knew we had some real good evidence at this point, but we still had to be able to put, to prove that Dexter pulled the trigger.”

Cox gave multiple statements over the next two days and eventually confessed to killing Lt. Vidulich.

“When Dexter Cox is sitting across from the police and confessing to one murder, what he did not realize at the time was he was confessing to three,” Lepone explains.

That’s because what Cox didn’t know at the time, is that police had already matched ballistics from Vidulich’s case to the October murders.

Merritt says Cox eventually led them to the gun.

“Then we were able to actually find the murder weapon when Dexter told us where it was hidden.”

While the confession sealed it, the ballistic evidence put all the pieces together.

“It’s invaluable to have that technology to be able to do that in these cases,” says Lepone.

According to law enforcement, it’s actually rare for police to recover the murder weapon.

Guns change hands quickly and criminals know how to get rid of them, making the technology even more critical when the gun is found.

4 comments

Courtney

I feel this was completely unnecessary I get your were trying to let gang members know that you have a way of finding things out but you could have chose a different way to do it. January will be six years since my dad was murdered. When all of this happened they reported numerous times that TBI was the ones who linked it all together. This is nothing new as you claimed, its actually almost six years old. I don’t understand why you would run another special on it and bring this all back up. Think of all the people that loved Ed and his family. This was rubbing salt in a wound.

Preston

I couldn’t agree more with you Courtney. Your dad was loved by so many people and it was such a tragedy. Something I know that I will never forget. I really think that it was unnecessary and uncalled for. They could have did that whole write up on a different subject or another case. So sorry you had to see it. As to the news station or the police department, You really should at least take into consideration of the family if no one else before bringing up a 6 year old case. As she said all that was is salt to a wound.

Jessica

This isn’t “new”. Really tacky actually, Eds friends and family are dealing with his death daily, let him rest in peace. Memphis has PLENTY of other cases you could have used for this “new” story. Be more considerate to victims families when trying to get your ratings.

Michelle

Have there not been any other murders in Memphis you could have used for this story. Or was it for rating, because I’m sure it raised them. You advertised this NEW technology for days, so yes with you showing Cox and Ed’s pictures people were looking for something new. The only thing I would consider being new and of interest to anybody about this case would have been if Cox were dead or going to the chair. But,there wasn’t anything new on their case. Next time have a little consideration for Ed’s family and friends and Mr Wootens family. My daughter has to live with this every day without people putting it in her face. This was not new technology and even if it was, if was very tacty to use Ed’s murder. These victims have been dead for over 5 years. Let them all rest. Shame on you and the MPD. All the news stations did an awesome job on the stories while the investigation was going on but 5 years later. Wow, all can say is Shame on you and the other stations that used this.